Conditions: Firm frozen slush from the day before that later melted into semi solid slush. The skies were a bit overcast and the temps were early springtime.

Flex: Solid just above middle of the road between the feet into just under middle of the road outside the feet. Smooth torsional flex, enough to really foot steer the board but still substantial enough not to feel sloppy. Overall it fits comfortably between a full on slopestyle deck and mid flex park deck.

Stability: Full out in the hard conditions the tips wouldn’t quite hold. The softer flex in the tips and softer torsionally between the feet while out in hard conditions just wasn’t quite enough to keep the contact points in. So the board jumped around a little bit while pointing it. With some effort it wasn’t ever anything I couldn’t keep under control though. Slimewalls and Popwalls helped soak up a fair bit of the vibration and chatter which helped keep things from getting out of hand, but it’s not a point through a chunder field type of deck. The other thing to note is the board feels wide. It’s only 25.2 at the waist so it hardly even qualifies as a mid wide, but it just took some extra effort to keep it up on edge.

Ollies: Entirely satisfactory. Ride seems to have finally figured out how to make the tips soft enough to actually get some use out of all the carbon they use. While it wasn’t really a boost to the moon type of snap it never left me lower than I wanted to be and I never felt like I had to put any extra effort into my pop to get what I needed. It was that type of snap that let you forget about the board and focus on what was in front of you.

Pop On Jumps: While the straight ollie snap wasn’t anything super special, the Popwalls give you all that same snap from your flat Ollie but off your edge. Normally you loose some of that and have to compensate by driving more of the board off the lip, with Popwalls you just snap and get it all. It’s less effort. The board is mostly camber so it snaps off a lip great and the wider feel is great as landing gear.

Butterability: The softer tips and softer torsional flex combined with the carbon right on top of the edge was really pretty awesome here. Everything in this sense just felt really well balanced. Soft enough to spread the love, but then when you snapped to bring it around you get plenty of action.

Jibbing: Camber will nearly always lock into a boardslide better than rocker. So that felt comfy. The lock into a press was great. It’s not your heshers jib noodle so it takes some muscle, but with some effort under some experienced feet the sweet spot is pretty easy to hit and lock into. It’s just outside the binding. Not so big that you can over-press and go over the handle bars, but still big enough that if you don’t hit it right away you can still muscle into it.

Carving: The overall wider feel and softer tips made euroing take a bit more effort, but in softer conditions you can keep the contact points in and the sidecut will let you lay a solid trench. Small set up turns were smooth and initiated easy as well.

Rider in Mind: Touted as Jake Welch’s park deck, Ride is aiming this at park riders hitting the big line.

Personal Thoughts: This was refreshing. Ride has always been that brand I could count on to have monster pop as long as you were willing to work your ass off to get it. This is showing a new side to their decks, something that is overall just a lot more accessible. It not having that monster pop was completely overshadowed by its ride ability. I think if you’re hitting the big line and you’re a lighter guy who doesn’t man handle their decks this is definitely something to consider. For me in the smaller size as someone more rail focused who likes a more solid feel on rails this is something I could ride as my everyday park deck.

Flex difference is minimal. They’re right around the same overall. The difference in pressing will be in the boards sweet spots, the DOA has a bigger spot to lock in the press but still takes more work in my opinion.

I was just wondering the size of the rider for this test? I’m 6’2 170lbs and had the 155 burnout. It recently was stolen but I planned on getting the same exact board. I wasn’t sure if I should go with the 158 this time around and still comfortably throw the board around in the park. Any insight would greatly be appreciated.

how would you compare this to the arbor relapse? are they the same as in pop and flex wise? i have the relapse and love it. just curious if both of those boards similar or are they different in their own ways.

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